i remain (mildly) unsetisfied with my 1978 topps autographed efforts

i posted a while back about adding some more signed 1978 topps cards to my collection. in that post, i noted that i was two cards shy of having a second complete dodger team set of signed cards. the first completed set is kept together as a team set, and the second group of dodger cards is part of my semi-serious full signed set endeavor. 

shortly after that post, i decided to go ahead and make sure i had all of the dodgers in that full set build effort, so i picked up signed cards of ted martinez

and the late johnny oates.

i also corrected a wrong that was mentioned in that same post, picking up a 1978 topps dave freisleben signed card

since an earlier seller had sent me a 1976 padrograph instead.

with those three cards in hand, i decided to get six more, so as to keep my set build at a number divisible by nine, which is a bit ocd. i needed some more manager cards, so i picked up a sparky anderson card

as kids in the neighborhood, we thought these were ok cards because of the "as player/as manager" design, but were disappointed that we couldn't "play ball" with the cards on the backs

sparky had just that one year in the majors, where he played in almost all of the phillies' games, but never made any additional appearances.

i also picked up a chuck tanner card

with a couple of inscriptions. tanner's back

shows nothing but big league experience. i wonder if any cub collectors have this card in their team collections the way i have jeff torborg's card in my dodger collection.

i also picked up managers herman franks

and vern rapp

i think now i only need darrell johnson and billy martin.

richie zisk's card is one i've wanted for a while, so i was pleased to find one at a low price

and steve dillard's card

was a sort of random pickup to get me to nine.

not too long after that, however, i saw a few more cards that were missing from my collection, and decided to pick up a few more. this second wind included rico carty

joe niekro

ray fosse

and atlanta brave all-star catcher biff pocoroba

and paul blair

who have all passed away.

plus phil mankowski

and paul hartzell

who were guys that i had looked into ttm opportunities with several years ago but never actually attempted any.

the last two cards i added were of st. louis cardinal hall of famers. i have lou brock's record breaker signed (it was a high priority as it is card #1 in the 1978 topps set), so i decided to add his base card

and then paired that with ted simmons' card

simmons' election to the hall of fame has really brought a lot of signed cards to market, for which i am thankful.

as always, i did as much research as i could on these signatures, and made it a point to not pay more than i was willing to "lose". hopefully they are all legit, but i understand the risk.

i now have 517 unique cards signed from the 726 card set, and 565 counting duplicates (team cards, multi-player cards). next milestone i suppose would be 545 cards which is 75% of the set. that will take a while, if i choose to pursue it. stay tuned!